FROSTED LEMON SUGAR COOKIES

Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies made by adding fresh lemon juice and zest to a simple sugar cookie dough. No rolling out or chilling necessary! Just bake and top with a bright lemon buttercream frosting. Easy Lemon Cookies piped with a super simple rosette so they taste incredible and they’re pretty too! My all-time favorite Sugar Cookie recipe!

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe Ever!

Lemon Sugar Cookies are one of my favorite cookies ever! They’re soft, perfectly sweet and everyone goes crazy over the fresh lemon buttercream frosting on top. It’s absolutely amazing. I love that these lemon cookies are so easy to make too- no rolling or chilling required! You can literally just make the dough, scoop it on the baking sheet and bake right away. They cool quickly and you’re welcome to just frost with a knife, or you can make the darling rosettes on top of each cookie like I did. It’s fast and easy, I promise! I’m not a cake decorator by any means and I was able to frost each cookie really fast and they looked just lovely.

Tips to get the PERFECT Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies:

Three kitchen items make these cookies come together really fast. I actually use these items in nearly every cookie recipe I make, so they’re quite versatile. First, I line my cookie sheets with a piece of parchment paper. They’re sold in sizes that fit a 12×16 cookie sheet perfectly and enable to cookies to bake well without sticking- and no mess from spraying oil on the cookie sheets!

The second item is a KitchenAid mixer. I love mine! I have a Bosch as well but I find I use my KitchenAid for cookies. There is a cookie paddle that comes with every mixer that you attach to the top of the mixer. They’re easy to use and help you mix the ingredients uniformly. I also use the metal whisk attachment in this recipe to make the frosting. It whips it up super fast! Add this to your wish list because it’s one of my all-time used small appliances ever!

The third item is a cookie scoop! Years and years ago I used to use 2 spoons to measure and scrape cookie dough onto the pans. It wasn’t a perfect process and I often ended up with oblong cookies in various sizes. A friend of mine brought cookies to a party and I noticed each and every one of her cookies looked PERFECT. Her secret? A cookie scoop! They come in three sizes- 1/2 tablespoon, 1.5 tablespoon and 3 tablespoon scoops. I used the middle size- 1.5 tablespoon for these, and most other cookies. (Although when I’m serving a large crowd, I use the small cookie scoop. People love having a smaller cookie, especially at an event with several other desserts. For this Lemon Sugar Cookie recipe I used the middle scoop.

Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies

1/2 cup softened butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/3 cup sour cream

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP lemon zest

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups all-purpose flour

Lemon Buttercream Frosting

1/2 cup softened butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 TBSP milk

2 TBSP lemon juice

1 TBSP lemon zest

4 cups powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix to combine. Continue process, adding 1/3 of the dry ingredients at a time until it’s all mixed in.

Scoop out 1.5 TBSP of dough and roll into a ball. You can use a medium cookie scoop to make this process faster. Rolling the cookie ball is optional, but I wanted very pretty cookies, so I took the additional 5 seconds and rolled them individually. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Cool fully before frosting.

To make the frosting:

Mix butter, vanilla, milk, lemon juice and zest for 30 seconds with a mixer. Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a closed star tip- I used a Wilton 2D. Begin piping in a tight circle in the middle of the cookie. Continue piping frosting in a circular motion until you reach the outside of the cookie. Frosting will set but I recommend not stacking cookies that have been frosted with a rosette so that you don’t squish them. Cookies frosted normally can be stacked though!

After you try these Frosted Lemon Sugar Cookies try a few of our other favorite sugar cookie recipes:

Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix to combine. Continue process, adding 1/3 of the dry ingredients at a time until it’s all mixed in.

Scoop out 1.5 TBSP of dough and roll into a ball. You can use a medium cookie scoop to make this process faster. Rolling the cookie ball is optional, but I wanted very pretty cookies, so I took the additional 5 seconds and rolled them individually. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Cool fully before frosting.

To make the frosting:

Mix butter, vanilla, milk, lemon juice and zest for 30 seconds with a mixer. Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until you reach your desired consistency.

Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a closed star tip- I used a Wilton 2D. Begin piping in a tight circle in the middle of the cookie. Continue piping frosting in a circular motion until you reach the outside of the cookie. Frosting will set but I recommend not stacking cookies that have been frosted with a rosette so that you don't squish them. Cookies frosted normally can be stacked though!

The last day of school is this week and I have to say, I’m a bit sad these two crazy kids aren’t going to get to hang out as much next year! Afternoon kindergarten is the best! They play each morning and really enjoy each other’s company a solid 86% of the time. We’ve done the walk to the bus stop every day this year and each time, A is sad when L climbs up into the bus and waves goodbye. Someday he’ll get his turn to ride the bus!

Comments

If I leave out the zest will it greatly deminish the lemon flavor, emphasis on the word greatly? Does the zest really add that much flavor or is it more for the little “flecks” and texture? I know the zest adds some flavor but I absolutely can’t stand the texture in my creamy foods I work so hard to get creamy! I just don’t like zest. If it is added only to increase the lemon flavor, is there something else I could replace it with?

So the lemon zest actually adds A TON of flavor! Once it’s worked into the frosting, you don’t even notice it’s there, texture-wise. I’d say try it and see if you like it! If you really don’t want to use it, I’d recommend adding either a drop of food-grade lemon essential oil or 1/2 tsp lemon extract. I’m not a huge fan of lemon extract because it has a much stronger alcohol flavor than lemon flavor, which is how extract is made. Hope this helps!